


There, Then Not

by slotumn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Background Character Death, Character Study, During Timeskip (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Funerals, Gen, Minor Character Death, no beta we die like Glenn, not knowing how to feel about hearing that people died, pretending you were friends with dead people for political reasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24462079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slotumn/pseuds/slotumn
Summary: Dead acquaintances were extremely awkward subjects to deal with, Claude realized, while dressing for the funeral.A.K.A. Background characters die, too.
Relationships: Claude von Riegan & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 14





	There, Then Not

**Author's Note:**

> So there are clearly other students at the academy aside from the 24 we get introduced to, right. And the ones we get to know survive the five years of war and make it back, but what about the others? A lot of them must be nobles, what happened to them (aside from the obvious answer of "helping out their family") and how would the house leaders react to those acquainted-but-not-friends classmates dying? That was the brainworm I ran with on this one.

Dead acquaintances were extremely awkward subjects to deal with, Claude realized, while dressing for the funeral.

He was acquainted with most lords of the Alliance as well as the scions by necessity-- through research, if not through meeting. It was necessary for his position and his plans, and that was all he thought of it. That still applied to most of them, the only exceptions being his friends from Golden Deer. 

And by that, he meant _friends_ , not every classmate. He tried to be friendly with everyone in the house, being the leader and all, but that didn't necessarily lead to close friendship. A general amicable atmosphere and lack of hostility was good enough for the purposes of securing their political support in the future. 

As long as they weren't dead in the said future, like the two people whose funerals he was about to attend.

"Arabella Celestine Burgundy and Benedict Cecilio Albany, huh..."

Perhaps it was unempathetic, but he didn't feel much upon hearing that they died. Or rather, he didn't know what to feel. 

What did he even know about them?

Arabella was from the viscounty of Burgundy, Benedict was from the barony of Albany. The two houses have always been close allies. Burgundy was rich and a rising star amongst the noble houses of the Alliance. Albany had no heirs with Crests and was on the brink of collapsing. And the two of them were...

...they were there. In the background. Arabella being courteous and charismatic, Benedict being polite but insecure. He had this hunch that both of them were carrying around some...baggage, issues, whatever, but frankly, who at Garreg Mach didn't?

He said hi to them when they crossed paths. Ate lunch together and made small talk a couple of times. Thought they were your average nobles, moved on. And when he heard that they disappeared instead of returning to their respective houses, the only thing he figured was that, yeah, they must have been in love like he once guessed in passing.

Two lovers, running away together in the middle of chaos. It happened.

Were they happy? Satisfied with their lives? he wondered, then wondered about why he was wondering.

Their parents were all devastated. He looked down at the speech he prepared for the funeral, worded to make it sound like he was a lot closer to those two than he really was. Designed to make their grieving parents look for comfort in them, and possibly, give political support in exchange.

He'd done far more questionable things before, and would continue to do so. It wasn't practical for him to start agonizing or being wrecked with guilt over it.

Moments from his academy days, where those two were in the background, doing whatever they were doing, flashed across his mind. He used to eavesdrop on them, as he did with anyone and everyone, but right now, he couldn't remember a single thing they'd said.

Could they have been friends?

In the mirror, his face was scrunched into a scowl-- like he just tasted something awfully unpleasant in the back of his throat.

He straightened his expression into the appropriate solemn one, and prepared to say the rehearsed words one last time.


End file.
